About Us

About Children First Of The Rockies

Our vision is that all families nurture children. We wish we didn’t have to exist, but we do.

The services of the Children First of the Rockies are designed to help clients, specifically families in conflict or crisis, improve their quality of life and ensure the safety and well-being of children. Our goals are to provide a nurturing environment in which parents learn better parenting skills and provide a safe, secure place for supervised parenting time visits and exchanges. We are the only nonprofit agency in Boulder County offering SAFE Services.

Though we began as The St. Vrain Valley Parenting Center, founded as an umbrella of Parenting Place in Boulder in 1998, to offer parent support and education to promote the healthy development of children, Children First of the Rockies became muh more after obtaining its 501(c)(3) in October of 1999. On January 26, 2000, Annie and her children, Levi, who was three-months shy of his sixth birthday, and fifteen-month-old Emma, were killed by her ex-husband when she dropped the children off for a court-ordered visit with their father. This tragedy prompted community representatives from the court, law enforcement, legal system, and mental health to form a task force to address the critical issue of how escalating violence between separated and divorced parents was affecting children in those families.

Since 2001, our Parent Education and SAFE Services Programs have emphasized both crisis prevention and intervention of the trauma and harm children experience due to domestic violence, substance abuse, mental illness, conflict in divorce, and a many other risk issues.

Starting in Late 2017, we will be providing an innovative Parent Education program specifically designed for families experiencing high conflict. In our “Co-Parenting Skills” class, we provide the skills and knowledge needed for parents to be engaged in situations where there is high conflict between the parents. Boot Camp for New Dads inspires and equips men to become confidently engaged with their infants and children, support their mates, and navigate their transformation into dads.

Through our SAFE Exchanges we deal with the issues associated with conflict between parents. Exchanges consist of parents dropping off and picking up children with a 15 minute interval between the exchanges so there is no meeting between the two adults. The opportunity provided by SAFE Exchange services is to eliminate triggers between the two parents that could have unhappy, unsafe, and harmful impact on the child.

We also offer Supervised Parenting Time (SPT) to support families in crisis where parenting is an issue. In providing this service, our staff observes and records these observations of non-custodial parents’ interactions with their children for periods of one to two hours during visits. The opportunity we provide with this service is the elimination of re-victimization of the child by the parent.

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Our Latest News

Colorado's largest one-day online giving event, presented by Community First Foundation and Firstbank is coming up and we'd love your support!
On Tuesday, December 5, thousands of donors will unite to support Colorado nonprofits like ours. In the ten years since it was founded, Colorado Gives Day has raised more than $145.3 million and is one of the most successful gives-day in the country. As you plan your donations for this year's event, we're asking you to[...]

We're excited to be nominated for the Longmont Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit of the Year Award. Being nominated is an honor in itself and we're in good company with a number of other local non-profits who are doing vital work in our community.
You can help us by voting us and your other favorite organizations here. Voting ends October 11.[...]

What's the difference between SAFE versus Therapeutic Visitations?
What are the indicators for SAFE Visitations?
What are the benefits of Therapeutic Visitations?
We are frequently asked these questions and also find that many in our community are not aware of that there are different choices for supervised visits.
We invite you to learn more about this topic and to enjoy a happy hour refreshment. There will be a panel discussion featuring Emily Sweetwine, MSW and Dr. Sara Amodio. This[...]

What Our Clients Are Saying

A great place to keep children safe

"This is a great place to keep the children safe from emotional, physical danger and from death." ~ local mental health professional

Very informative

“Class was very informative and it was great to hear everyone's perspectives.” ~ participant in Boot Camp for New Dads

I really enjoy the time

"Since this is the only time I get to spend with my children, I really enjoy the time I spend here. Folks here have been very kind in general." ~ participant in SAFE Services